Conservatives Don't Understand the Heller Ruling or Gun Laws in General

Published in The Laconia Daily Sun 7-20-2016

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/opinion/letters/96576-james-veverka-7-20-435

To the Editor,

Don Ewing isn't paying attention to what is going on in the USA regarding guns laws. He doesn't even understand the Heller V. District of Columbia ruling of 2008. Heller affirmed the right to self-protection but it also made clear that states and municipalities could regulate firearms. Within Scalia's holding is stated:

"1(f) ...United States v. Miller, 307 U. S. 174 , does not limit the right to keep and bear arms to militia purposes, but rather limits the type of weapon to which the right applies to those used by the militia, i.e., those in common use for lawful purposes. Pp. 47–54. 

(2). Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose:  For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those “in common use at the time” finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons. Pp. 54–56."

Heller did not interpret the 2nd Amendment the way the Sun's ammosexual writers do. Go ahead, read Scalia's holding again. "Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited". Maryland has banned assault type weapons as "dangerous and unusual weapons" that do not fall within the purview of the 2nd Amendment. The Supreme Court has let stand California's ban on concealed carry without providing "just cause" to the Sheriff's Department. It let stand the Connecticut and Highland Park, IL bans on assault styled semi-automatics. The court has also let stand regulations on trigger locks, gun lock boxes, and gun sales taxes. Several places have put limits on the size of magazines and they have survived judicial review. Just last month, California enacted six new gun laws. One was background checks for ammunition sales. Another enacted new rules for lending out guns and another addressed "straw man" purchases which is when a person buys a gun for someone barred from doing so. 

Politifact has affirmed that "Americans are 20 times as likely to die from gun violence as citizens of other civilized countries." http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/jan/17/lisa-bloom/americans-are-20-times-likely-die-gun-violence-cit/ More guns or doing nothing are not acceptable solutions to the American Disease. Twenty times is a sickness.

James Veverka